Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson has said he hopes the government can address RUC concerns with sympathy and generosity ahead of its response to the Patten report.

Mr Mandelson is to make a statement in the House of Commons on Wednesday giving the government's view on the controversial report on policing in Northern Ireland.

Mr Mandelson was speaking on Tuesday after discussions with representatives of the Royal Ulster Constabulary staff associations at Stormont House in Belfast.

The talks addressed the costs of implementing the raft of radical reforms to policing outlined in the report.

He said: "I am glad that we have been able to get these discussions under way.

"I know there is much concern among police officers about what the future may hold.

"These discussions will help all sides to move towards arrangements which address those concerns with sympathy and generosity."

Afterwards a spokesman for the Police Federation, which represents about 13,000 RUC officers, said the the first stage of the talks had been about voluntary severance arrangements.

David McClurg said: "After that we went into discussions in respect of Patten's proposals. We simply made opening statements. There were no agreements arrived at, nothing was on the table and the discussions are continuing."

Mr McClurg said the discussions would not be carried out in public.

"That would be totally unfair on our members to do that in the full glare of media coverage."

He told the BBC there were no concrete redundancy packages on the table at this stage.

The Northern Ireland Office has so far refused to comment on reports that the RUC is to be renamed the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

A name change was one of the 175 major recommendations made by former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten.

Earlier, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams has said the Patten report must be fully implemented.

Speaking in west Belfast, Mr Adams said republicans and nationalists would be looking closely to see if the implementation of the report was capable of delivering a police force which would command the support of their community.

"At the very least what has to happen is that the Patten report has to be implemented in full by the British Government and the British Government's implementation of that report has to be very visible within its legislation."

The Patten report, which was published last September, also includes controversial proposals for changes to RUC insignia and uniform as well as cutting the number of RUC officers by around 6,000.

Unionists were outraged by many of Patten's recommendations but Sinn Fein said they did not go far enough and demanded the complete disbandment of the RUC.

It is believed Mr Mandelson backs most of Patten's proposals.